Whether you're a fan of Muse or not, you can't argue against the fact that they're not afraid to be bold with their albums and they're definitely one of the most experimental bands around and their new release: The 2nd Law is definitely their most experimental piece of work yet.
Their 9-minute-long symphony in The Resistance was something extraordinary and created a lot of hype around that album and with The 2nd Law comes another hype, a new Muse era: the rise of musestep.
The trailer released for the album gave fans a taster of what was in store from this album sampling the song Unsustainable and giving us an insight into the alluded musestep.
The album is not full of this genre of music though, the experimental material is left for the end, as well as seeping into their song Follow Me, with their two takes on dubstep: Unsustainable and Isolated System, ending the album.
Personally, I prefer the latter of the two songs. Isolated System is a much softer version of dubstep without lyrics whereas I think Unsustainable would be preferred more by fans of the Skrillex form of the genre.
As well as their development of musestep, fans are introduced to the vocal talent of another member of the band: the bassist, Chris Wolstenholme. Although hearing his voice on a track is not entirely new to Muse fans as he is featured as a background vocalist in Supermassive Black Hole.
But in this album, he is given two songs to himself: Save Me - a beautifully vulnerable sounding song including lyrics such as: "Don't let me go, I'm nothing without you" - and Liquid State, a much rockier song with harsher vocals, which, to me, sounds very similar to InnerPartySystem.
Decisions like this are somewhat risky, introducing a voice that is unfamiliar with Muse fans, however gathering from their reactions, it seems to have paid off. Having a different voice to listen to is quite refreshing and shows yet another side to Muse and their talents.
However, Muse have not forgotten their roots. The album is still full of fantastic riffs and guitar solos, the sound everyone associates with the band.
Explorers seems very reminiscent of Soldier's Poem from Black Holes and Revelations, and the guitar solo from Madness is very Brian May-esque therefore creating a similar Queen sound to that of United States of Eurasia from The Resistance.
It's difficult to say if this is their best album yet as every album they produce is so diverse and completely different to the previous. It's the Muse we all know and love, with a twist.
They give their fans something new every time and with their next album, I wouldn't be surprised if they turned reggae. Although, I'm sure they could even make that work.
